By SIMON HENDERY
The numbers Meera Bhattarai rattles off are impressive enough: she heads an export operation turning over almost $US600,000 ($1.4 million), with annual growth of 25 per cent.
But what really makes her business remarkable is its low-tech, labour-intensive nature, and the fact it is run out of one of the world's poorest countries.
Ms Bhattarai is executive director of Nepal's non-profit Association of Craft Producers, a collective of 1000 mainly women artisans.
In a world dominated by free trade and market forces, the association has cracked a valuable niche, selling its range of quality crafts in 16 countries and pushing its philosophy of "fair trade."
The 16-year-old non-profit association pays "fair wages" to its producers, insists on safe working conditions and runs literacy classes and savings programmes.
Ms Bhattarai is confident the association can continue to grow by 25 per cent a year.
"We have a strong social obligation, no doubt. But we also have to be very competitively priced in the market," she said during a visit to Auckland.
She was brought here by Trade Aid, the 31-store fair trade volunteer society that imports goods from around the world, including linen, shoulder bags and ceramics from the Nepalese producers.
Ms Bhattarai said pushing the association's fair trade philosophy gave her business a competitive advantage over less reputable traders who exploited their suppliers.
"We tell the story of the producers.
"We talk about the changes we have been able to bring in the lives of the women."
The association lobbies against free trade, and against Nepal's bid for World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership.
Poor countries such as Nepal would get trampled in the rush if they tried to compete on a level playing field with the developed world, said Ms Bhattarai said.
"Yes, in theory it [free trade] works, but not in practice.
"We have to have some consideration for the developing countries, for the smaller-scale producers."
She said the Nepalese Government did not have in place the trading infrastructure it would need to take full advantage of WTO membership.
Nepal is one of 30 countries, including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, negotiating to join the WTO.
Ms Bhattarai said she was optimistic that fair trade exporters had a healthy future because there was growing acceptance of the concept internationally and a global marketing network for traders was now in place.
Fairness first works for Nepalese collective
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